DVD Review: CGI puts chill on ‘Iceman’ redo
As Hong Kong directors and actors — John Woo, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li and Maggie Cheung among others — migrated toward Western productions, there was still a lot of worthwhile talent ready to jump into their places. Among the directors who stayed, Johnny To and Andrew Lau have done numerous first-rate productions. The biggest stars to bridge the two periods are Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Anthony Wong and Andy Lau (who has appeared in films by the other Andrew Lau).
Americans saw Donnie Yen in Zhang Yi-Mou’s “Hero,” but, as far as I know, he’s only been in one English language movie, “Blade II.” The irony here is that Yen spent much of his childhood in Boston and consequently speaks the best English of the male actors mentioned above. He became a star in the early nineties and has recently received more attention for the films in which he plays real-life martial arts master Ip Man. But his career started in the mid-’80s, which means that he’s 50ish, though you wouldn’t know it to look at him.
His latest is “Iceman,” a remake of the 1989 Yuen Biao vehicle called “The Iceman Cometh.” Most of the film takes place in modern Hong Kong, but there are several flashbacks to 1621 to fill in the back story. He Ying (Yen) is a loyal imperial officer, who is framed for treason. Three other swordsmen are chasing him when they are all caught in an avalanche and frozen. 400 years later, he is found and accidentally defrosted. He has some sort of obligation he still wants to discharge — the plot isn’t exactly crystal clear — but soon he is being pursued by a corrupt cop (Simon Yam) and the other three recently defrosted enemies. (We are never told how and when they came out of the deepfreeze.)
It’s not Yen’s best by a long shot. Its greatest virtues are the riotous production design and cinematography in the Hong Kong scenes. There are almost nonstop chases and fights; some are well choreographed (by Yen), but they are so full of CGI and postproduction work that they fail to show off the best of what he can do.
The disc looks great; the only extras are a trailer and roughly 20 minutes of making-of shorts that quickly become repetitive.
Iceman (Well Go USA Entertainment, Blu-ray, $29.98; DVD, $24.98)
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).